Northwestern pulled “A” and “B” grades in previous editions of the report, and for the most part so did the hospitals that are part of the Northshore
University Health System.

In Northwestern’s case, the hospital’s grade fell because of new data added to the reporting system, on two serious kinds of infection: MRSA, a
drug-resistant staph infection and Clostridium difficile, another drug-resistant bacteria.

“These are really prevalent and difficult infections, and with Northwestern Memorial, they scored really poorly on that,” says Tim Vogus, a Vanderbilt
University professor who advised Leapfrog on the construction of its rating system.

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“If all else was absolutely equal, I think you’d be better off going to a hospital that consistently got As than hospitals that got Bs and Cs,” says Robert
Wachter, a professor at the University of California San Francisco medical school and author of the book “Understanding Patient Safety.”

He hopes that hospitals will pay at least as much attention to the results as consumers-- and focus on ways to improve.

“Hospitals like Northwestern, or University of Chicago or my own--you know, we’re used to getting As on tests,” he says. “So when you see yourself getting
a B or a C, you say, ‘Boy, what are we doing here? Can we do better?’”